French police who forced a woman to remove her burkini on a beach in Nice ‘are no better’ than Islamic State militants, a British author has claimed.

Shelina Janmohamed told BBC Newsnight on Wednesday that women everywhere should be protesting after armed guards approached a Muslim woman and told her to remove her clothing on Tuesday.

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But Spectator assistant editor Douglas Murray was quick to point out that the comparison only goes so far because, as “grotesque” as the police’s actions were, officers do subsequently “rape and kill” women as Isis does.

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Murray, who is Associate Editor at The Spectator, said: “The French authorities – grotesque as this is – do not then do to the women what Isis and the Taliban do which is to rape and kill them.

“So it is a parallel that goes a certain way but we have to keep this in some context.”

Murray and Janmohamed agreed that not a single life would be saved by banning the burkini.

Janmohamed, who owns a burkini, said: “It’s not really about the form of the burkini that seems to be at stake here but it’s some kind of meaning that’s been imposed on it.”

Murray pointed out that more than 200 people have been killed in Jihadist attacks in France in the last 18 months and that in Germany there is talk of conscription – yet politicians’ gaze is on the burkini.

About Douglas Murray

A bestselling author and award-winning political commentator, he previously founded the Centre for Social Cohesion, which monitors extremism in Britain. Murray is the author of numerous publications including, "Victims of Intimidation: Freedom of Speech within Europe's Muslim Communities". A columnist for Standpoint magazine, he writes for a variety of other publications, including the Spectator and Wall Street Journal. Murray is an expert on Islamist extremism and UK foreign policy. He recently published a book on the Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday.

The Henry Jackson Society is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under company number 07465741 and a charity registered in England and Wales under registered charity number 1140489.